When I questioned Toombs about the press release photo of him and McQuhae that seems to resemble a warm moment between two old college friends as much as it does business partners symbolically embarking on a col- laborative venture, he chuckled and said, “I met Brad nearly 25 years ago at a craft brewery conference. We were always friendly Canadian competitors from opposite coasts with the same vision. They’re great people who produce a great product and they’ve been in the industry a long time.” McQuhae’s sentiments were equally cordial. “We’re extremely fortunate to have been presented with the opportunity to unite with our respected counterparts; DME Brewing Solutions,” he said. “We look forward to a bright future together. Now that the brands have merged, Toombs estimates their global presence to be in the range of 1000 to 1,100 individual microbrewery projects but he admits that “would be a very conservative number.”
feet manufacturing facility in South Carolina. This is some- thing that Brad and his team looked at before the merger,” Toombs said. “They were at and beyond their existing capacity in Abbotsford, so they had been reaching out to the U.S. market directly. Basically, Brad and his team had done all the foot work. The facility that came along with this transaction is fully enclosed with gates and personnel on-site are being mobilized and trained as we speak. We’re hopeful that sparks will fly by November.” “Brad and I started talking three years ago and we realized that it’s a very fragmented industry from the supply chain side of things when you look at the big picture. That was our motivation.” While operations will continue at both the Charlottetown and Abbotsford locations in Canada, Toombs is eager to get things underway south of the border. “This is a sig- nificant expansion. It’s going to give us that Made in the U.S.A. label on everything coming out of South Carolina, which is very important in our industry. That label means a lot to Americans,” Toombs said.
“What’s really exciting is that the combined brands are now executing roughly 100 new projects globally.”
This new shared volume was Toombs and McQuhae’s first challenge.
“Plans are underway for a new state of the art 50,000 square
Toombs believes the benefits to customers will be felt
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DECEMBER 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
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